"When I was growing up, I used to bring these boys home and they'd all fancy my sisters. It was awful. So I know the pain of that situation," she laughs.

POOKY Quesnel knows all about sibling rivalry. "I've got three sisters who are all dead gorgeous," says the Eccles-raised actress and star of True Dare Kiss (BBC1, tonight, 9pm).

"When I was growing up, I used to bring these boys home and they'd all fancy my sisters. It was awful. So I know the pain of that situation," she laughs.

Pooky plays scheming businesswoman Nita, the eldest of four sisters in Debbie Horsfield's unfolding mystery with a dark comic edge.

"There's so many twists and turns and secrets in the series," she explains. "When I first read the script, I guessed a couple of things but I'd fallen into the trap with a few others. It just unfolds so brilliantly."

Control freak Nita fears losing husband Nash (Paul McGann) to journalist sister Phil (Dervla Kirwan), his former love who has returned to Manchester afer 20 years in London.

Viewers already know there's more to carpenter Nash than meets the eye, but have yet to discover the truth about a lingering mystery at Smyrna Grove, the original family home.

"We used a really spooky house in Whalley Range," says Pooky. "It's got 10 bedrooms and four massive rooms downstairs. It was made into bedsits for a while, but they're all abandoned and full of broken furniture. There's a real air of people passing through that house and not much happiness. It's great for the story.

"I was brought up in Eccles, not far away from Debbie, and I based some of Nita on my sister who lives in Manchester and her relationship with her two kids. She was a hip young mum, without trying too hard.

"My sisters are my best friends. We look alike and have similar mannerisms, and it kind of freaks people out when we're out together."

"I went to every home game for three years until I left home and went down south," reveals Pooky. "It was great to go back. We needed a goal for something that happened in the action, and we got four. Any time a goal happened, we just had to stop what we were doing and go into that piece of action that involved the goal. It was hilarious."

Co-star Paul was glad his character was waiting in a bar to meet Phil after the game. "I was appalled, being a Liverpool fan, that I'd have to play a Manchester United fan. Fortunately, the day they went to Old Trafford to film, Nash was off somewhere else, so I got away with it."

He's a fan of Debbie's work. "True Dare Kiss is grown-up telly. It takes a bit of following and some of the themes are pretty adult, and it's all the better for that. Often you'd be forgiven for thinking that TV output is for 14-year-olds. But we want things a little grown-up as well, don't we? I like that."

Paul enjoyed working back in the north. "It's refreshing to come back. I'm slightly biased, but with good reason. It's just a little bit slower, but in a good way. People look you in the eye. That's the way I grew up.

Liverpool

"I always like coming to Manchester. Coming from Liverpool, this is the big city. It was always a bit exciting going to Manchester. I'm glad the BBC is moving its stuff up here."

London-based Pooky agrees. "Mancunians are really friendly. That's what struck me about coming back. I'd forgotten how open people are, and how much I'd closed off going down south. Manchester has become this sexy, confident city."

She adds: "It's a brilliant script by Debbie - the voice of Salford. It's very funny and very dark."

Pooky knows what she's talking about, also being a scriptwriter herself.

"I started writing four years ago to occupy my mind in times of unemployment. I really enjoy it.

"I wrote for Family Affairs for a while and I'm on a contract to write for Doctors, so I've got to write another two episodes before September, and maybe some stuff for Casualty."

For all the latest news from the world of television, check out Ian Wylie's blog, The Life ofWylie.

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TAKE four girls, one family secret, a childhood game and Eccles-born writer Debbie Horsfield. Mix together and you've got new Manchester filmed and set drama serial True Dare Kiss (BBC1, later this month). Debbie's first TV project since Cutting It stars Dervla Kirwan, Lorraine Ashbourne, Pooky Quesnel and Esther Hall as four sisters.

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